Seidio Active Review

category: iPad, iPadManiac, Reviews

Seidio Active Review 0

When you have a younger sibling in your house, it becomes necessary to hold onto your expensive electronics for dear life. But luckily, the realm of nuclear bomb-proof cases has entered the iPad 2 stratosphere. The Seidio Active is a great case that is protective, sturdy, and won’t add much bulk.

I was really excited when Seidio released the Active case for the iPad 2, as the Otterbox Defender’s weight, thickness, and cost didn’t really appeal to me. The first thing I noticed about this case is its weight. After toting a Defender+iPad 2 around, my iPad felt naked with this case on. The Active only adds 3.5 oz of weight onto the iPad, which is a plus. The Active does add some thickness, but is considerable thinner than the Defender. Finally, the Active costs $69.95 as compared to the $89.95 price tag of the Defender.

The Active is made out of a three layer protection system. The inner layer is a silicone wrap that hugs the iPad snugly. It was very easy to put on without any fuss, and gave easy access to the headphone jack, 30-pin dock connector, and screen lock orientation/volume silencer switch. I liked how it covered the power button and volume rocker and found the buttons very easy to push with the silicone covering. One thing that concerned me was the opening for the microphone. The hole wasn’t centered over the mic and seemed to be cut too far back, but when I tested the mic, it worked fine. The silicone wrap also has raised grips on either side of the case to make it easier to hold your iPad as well as a circle cut out to expose the Apple logo.

The second layer is a hard shell backing that snaps on top of the silicone wrap. It also has a circle cut out to showcase the Apple logo, but it has a plastic window covering the hole to prevent the back of your iPad from scratches. The backing was easy to snap on as it only gripped the silicone in the four corners plus left and right side. Seidio currently offers this hard cover backing in three colors: black, sapphire, and amethyst, and I decided to go with the black.

The final layer was the hard front cover. The cover was held into place by snapping together with the hard backing. Each of the four corners had a raised area that fit into the indentations found on each corner of the hard back. The front cover had two non-slip strips across the front, which were great additions to the case. The left and right side of the front cover had a different texture to give users a better grip. I didn’t like how part of the home button was exposed, as all of the iPad’s front was protected except for a half moon portion of the home button. Because the cover protects the entire front of the iPad, I noticed that the back camera was not visible when I snapped the cover onto the back.

I really liked how the front cover could be converted into a stand for using your iPad. Inside the cover was a plastic flap that could be pulled up. It was held into place with two ridges, and it was so tight that I felt I was going to break the flap before pulling it up. Luckily, I was able to remove it from the storing position without any damage (I found that the case could be closed without snapping the flap back into its storing position, so if you are worried about breaking the flap from pulling it out, you can just leave it out). The stand had fifteen different notches to slide the metal bar into, which was great for those who need the perfect angle. The stand positions ranged from a great typing position to a near vertical viewing position, and they all felt very sturdy.

Overall, I really liked this case. It gave me ample protection as well as tons of stand options. I will note, however, that this case does not have Smart Cover capabilities, but that can easily be fixed by sticking magnets in the rectangular indentations found on the inside of the front cover (apparently these were meant for activating the Smart Cover technology but Seidio decided to scrap the idea). If you want a great case that isn’t too expensive, check out the Seidio Active.